<spoiler>I uh, see I was really late. By any chance are you still around? The other one has a squirrel which brings up questions I’d rather not ask</spoiler>

&quot;And you seem to have accepted this too. I knew we could be friends. The problem is that they keep believing they can somehow create a better place for themselves than the world has room for, if these people would just accept their role in life, the world would be much happier.&quot; <i>The girl stands up, still smiling, and takes Aina by the hand, trying to get her to stand too</i> &quot;We should go somewhere a little more private. It'll only take a moment, then we'll be ready, alright?&quot;

<i>The doorman accepts Joji's invitation with a smile, opening the door for him to enter, beyond which lies a grand enrance, splitting off into several side passages and hallways, surely a maze to navigate. Fortunately there's already a servant waiting to lead the first few guests onwards Similarly, the man grins at Aina, waving her on in to the waiting servant as well</i> &quot;Glad to see you got the whole message miss Aina, don't worry, you won't be disappointed.&quot; <i>With two people at the ready, the second servant leads Aina and Joji down the hallway, taking a left, then a right turn before passing two more halls and ending up at a large pair of doors to their right he opens the doors to show Aina and Joji to the main hall, a massive space with a large open space in the center occupied by a few dozen pairs, their dresses range from business suits to casual wear, and every last one of them is wearing some sort of mask, from bright and gaudy pinks to dark and simple blacks, with tables of finger foods lined up against the sides of the hall for any passerby to take As Rhys comes up to the door, the serant glances down at his clothing, the man chuckles to himself before accepting Rhys's invitation and waving him inward</i> &quot;Do be more careful in the future, it would be a shame to ruin the suit so soon.&quot; <i>As before, a servant would be waiting to lead Raiden and Rhys to the same central area as Aina and Joji, turning right, then left, and ending up on the other side of the room. With the immediate guests taken care of, the doorman begins fidgeting a little, apparently growing somewhat impatient before he finally notices Mara</i> &quot;Excuse me ma'am, are you lost? Or do you have an invitation?&quot; <i>As for Quintus, Hookworm would sense an abundance of despair permeating the area, making it difficult to point out any individuals for the moment, it gets more intense the closer to the mansion it is, likely confirming his suspicions</i>

<i>Though summer is start My yo wrap up, Akio would still manage to find a few stores holding fireworks, mostly firecrackers and other small things, but he also manages to find a few full firework batteries. As for people he finds a few couples, one of whom considers buying one of the batteries, but decides against it at the last minutes, and a solitary pair of people sitting by the fountain James would probably be most interested in the food court, which contains the usual assortment of food from all around the world, including a single joint focused primarily on American burgers The girl next to Aina giggles, covering her mouth with one hand</i> “Don’t worry about it. You can call me Shizuoka.” <i>The girl extends her hand for a handshake, and would ramble on herself whether or not Aina accepts it</i> “People always end up chasing after something they can’t achieve, or competing for the same spot in life. So they end up fighting each other over it, every time.” <i>Shizuoka would gesture to the world around them, as though drawing attention to the entire city</i> “Every day people chase after some silly dream when they’d be much better off staying where they are, or starting wars because they want what the other has. I think the world would be a better place if it were quieter. If they could just calm down.”

<i>The girl leads Aina off to the side, down one of the mall's many passages offset from the main floor, she waves politely at a few passing groups, before finally stopping in an that still seems to be under construction, what few storefronts there are are all gated closed, with a mostly empty area visible behind the slotted metal gates</i> &quot;there we go, this should be good enough. You might want to close your eyes for a second, its a little intimidating at first, but once we're done you'll be a lot better off.&quot; <i>The girl continues smiling as her shadow seems to grow, expanding along the nearest wall, before peeling itself off and rapidly expanding to engulf the pair. Of course, she wouldn't see that if she closes her eyes like asked. The shadow would feel stifling at first, but in a few moments bring about a faint sense of melancholic peace Akio finds most of the fireworks in a fairly well-off store for trending objects, mostly stuff from games and shows but a fair selection of more typical clothing and, as it would seem, a brief venture into selling fireworks too. There aren't too many left, so the clerk, a middle-aged man whose exhaustion seems almost equal to Akio's energy</i> &quot;Huh, guess you're looking to send the season off with a bang huh? Well, we stopped buying them a few weeks ago, but there's still about 14,000 Yen's worth left... OH, right, we've got a buy one get one sale going on so that's closer to 7,000 then.&quot;

“Personally, I like when it’s quiet.” <i>A young, black-haired girl takes a seat next to Aina, calmly smiling at her, the girl doesn’t have any bags, and doesn’t look to be older than maybe 16, the girl casually leans her head on her own shoulder</i> “Weird isn’t it, how much harder it is to really talk to people the more there are?”

<i>Quintus begins circling around the mansion, to find something strange to say the least. When he goes arund to the building's side, he finds all the lights off, as if half the place is unoccupied. Though there aren't any outside-leading doors, he does find a half-open window on the second floor. Or he could continue circling around in hopes of finding something better. Rhys bumps into a rather tall, grey-haired man wearing a business suit and a simple black mask, crow feathers decorating the ends of it dancing with a somewhat shorter woman wearing a long red dress with a mask to match. The man stumbles a little, looking back over to Rhys. Though his initial expression is annoyed, the man grins when he sees the boy, and bows before stepping away from his partner</i> Crow Mask: &quot;I see you missed the memo on the masks. Don't worry about it, in fact its probably a good thing you found me. If you'd like we could find a spare before the main event starts.&quot; <i>The doorman accepts Mara's invitation, looking over it with a smile before opening the door for her as well</i> Doorman:&quot;Ah yes, I do believe you're the last one then.... Wait....&quot; <i>The man looks over his list again, carefully marking down it before coming to a conclusion with a sigh</i> Doorman: Nevermind that, allow me to escort you myself, if a &quot;Quintus Geminus&quot; does show up I'm sure he can wait a few moments just fine. <i>with that, the man would wave for Mara to follow him to the central room with all of the others. Most of the small groups Aina finds herself among would be almost completely silent, dancing along as though simply going through the moment, what few do say anything would merely be talking about how it was such a lovely ball and other such minor comments. One man in particular, a man of average-height wearing a pure white mask ending in long white feathers would glance her out the corner of his eye and begin to smile, before going on with his partner</i> Swan Mask: &quot;I'm glad to see so many esteemed guests have arrived already, its sure to be a night to remember.&quot; <i>Raiden and Joji both check out one of the larger food tables up front, which has mini sandwiches, which follow a basic formula of one meat, ham chicken or turkey, with lettuce and one other vegetable, peppers tomatoes or pickles, and one condiment. In addition, there are several plates of shrimp arranged in a circle around marinara sauce, and it seems they were quick enough for relatively little to have been eaten yet, giving them a wide array of options</i>

<i>Quintus's window leads into a small bedroom, its difficult to make much out inside due to the lack of light, but he can tell there's a bad without any major lumps in it to indicate a person, as well as a small desk just in front of the window which he would have to climb over to get into the room, a closed wardrobe, and finally its door on the opposite side of the room leading into the hallway. The door is shut at the moment, but a sliver of light can be seen through the crack at the bottom of the door The man with a crow mask smiles back at Rhys, briefly turning to apologize to his companion</i> Crow mask: Sorry to cut this so short, I can't very well leave the kid hanging. I'm sure you can understand. We'll be back in a few moments. <i>His dance partner almost absentmindedly nods, which seems to satisfy the man as he takes the chance to gesture Rhys to follow him back out the door Rhys entered, taking an immediate left as the pair would walk on</i> Crow Mask: There we go, it was getting a bit crowded there to begin with. <i>The pair pass by another servant, dressed identically to the last, and go a few doors down to a stairway leading to the second floor, while they pass Crow Mask tries keeping up some semblance of conversation</i> Crow Mask: You haven't been out here before, have you? The city actually looks quite peaceful from all the way out here, far better than the chaos you'd find at the center. Oh, but where are my manners. Tell me, what is it that brings you here anyways? And not just the invitation, you could always turn that down. More like, what made you interested in coming, simply for a new experience? <i>Mara glances around, taking a good note at the massive hall with pillars spread around near the sides both to give off a feeling of grandeur and of course to support the building as well, there doesn't seem to be much decorating the place, all things considered. Its relatively bare, and perhaps a bit too spacious. Mara might also notice that all the vents are near the ceiling a good fourty feet up, rather than coming from the ground, for whatever that's worth. I'll leave Joji and Raiden to catch up for a bit, at the very least I have little to add for them</i>

<i>The shade doesn't seem even remotely impressed by all of his posing, instead it takes advantage of the chance to do something incredibly rude and swing its strings, aiming to wrap those on its right hand around Akio's left arm, then drag him forwards as it swings down the five on its left, which would try to simply cut through his helmet</i> &quot;Miserable forever..... No use in resisting.&quot;

<i>The exhausted clerk chuckles, taking a few steps behind the counter to retrieve the fireworks and set them back near the register, one at a time, before finally accepting the cash and finishing the transaction</i> &quot;Alright, suit yourself. Honestly they were starting to get a bit old anyways so you're really doing me a favor here. Please come again&quot; <i>Though it sounds like he couldn't care less if you ever returned, the man does manage to crack a slight smile as he finishes putting the 7,000 in the register, and takes out about 20 yens worth in change to hand back to Akio After a few seconds the air would seem to lighten up, or rather become less oppressive as Aina gets used to it, its impossible to see much of anything at this point, though the girl's voice still rings out</i> &quot;You get it now right? That sense of peace and acceptance, the calm that comes whenever you've given up hope? Much better than struggling isn't it? If everyone knew that peace, the world's problems would be over. No one would suffer, no one would fight, there'd be no need for it. But you already understand that, don't you?&quot; <i>It would become somewhat harder for Aina to think as the girl finishes, if she still doesn't resist, her breathing would become heavier, more exhausted, and even thinking positive thoughts would become harder. However, beneath all of that she'd feel a faint sense of empowerment, as someone with a mission to do</i>